Nasty Pitch-Artefacts and Push-Encoders

OP-1
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#1

Hello fellow op1-users,

I have to admit I sold my op1 a year ago after having an amazing time with it - I became a junky and wanted more, so I started with eurorack modular.
Long story short I bought the op1 again.
Now there is a big problem which bothers me: recording something into the drumsampler and then looping & pitching… from around -7/-8 there start a very nasty digital antialiasing (?) sound to come in in the high frequency range. The signal degradation starts already from -2… In Ableton pitching goes down much smoother & -8 is not even that far… I got also a very cheap Behringer FX-box which goes down to -12 pretty smoothly.
To sum up: I love pitching down sample-material, but the op1 seems very horrible at this. Does any one has tips or an opinion or explanation on this? Should I ask TE what the problem is? Maybe they programmed on purpose a “lofi”-pitching? It doesn’t sound to me like 24-bit 96kHz at all…

Also being away from the op1 scene - are there any news on the push encoders? I always wondered - one can push the encoders but there is no function? Is that still the case?

thanks & greetings
OPA

#2
Which sampler, drum or synth?

Remember that old hardware samplers were 12 bit, sampled at less than 44kHz, and still have a huge following. The OP-1 is "unapologetically digital", embrace it as part of its aesthetic.

That said, high frequencies and pitch shifting is Nyquist territory, so maybe you could low-pass your signal before sampling it? For instance stereo FM radio has a constant tone at 19kHz as part of the signal. On old tape decks this would interfere with the tape bias, colouring the sound, even though by itself it didn't exist on the tape.. hence the MPX filter button.

The synth sampler has 6 seconds, and the drum sampler has 12. A nice factor of two there, speaking of sampling rates.. (edit: or interpolation)

#3

I just tried the synth sampler - it has not this problems.
Before I used drum for this task because of its 12 secs.

unapologetically digital - does it mean it has to be 80s technology?
All the last MPCs got no problems with pitching.
Didn’t know about that 19khz-thing - thank you. But it doesn’t seem to be the fm, because I sampled the radio into the synth-sampler and it pitched alright. There has to be something about the drum-sampler - maybe its 8bit? because drums “don’t need more”?

#4
I just tried the synth sampler - it has not this problems.
Before I used drum for this task because of its 12 secs.

Interpolation

Didn't know about that 19khz-thing - thank you. But it doesn't seem to be the fm, because I sampled the radio into the synth-sampler and it pitched alright. There has to be something about the drum-sampler - maybe its 8bit? because drums "don't need more"?
FM is just an example of signals with frequencies close to the Nyquist frequency, that would degrade first. The drum sampler sounds 16 bit (8 bit is easy to recognise) however it doesn't sound like it's interpolating at the same quality as the synth sampler. Simple 2x interpolation requires twice the memory, so pick what you prefer: an extra 6 seconds or better sound?
Technically nothing is stopping you from recording a 6 second sample pitched down at half speed (12 sec) into the drum sampler, then having your slices (now fewer) play at +12 by default...

unapologetically digital - does it mean it has to be 80s technology?
no, then again it doesn't mean it can only do four tracks. or that the four tracks really need to be mono... or that it must click so badly. it's all design choices and execution.. That's its character.
#5

thank you very much for helping! - now I have something to blame at least: interpolation
btw. are you also hearing this? did nobody ever mention it? there are a lot am sampling-fans out there I’d think…

that sounds like a very good idea, your workaround! but how to record from sample synth to drum sampler?

and offtopic: so the encoder pressing has still no function? it’s kind of strange I’m sure there are hundreds of ideas how you could use the push…

#6
that sounds like a very good idea, your workaround! but how to record from sample synth to drum sampler
record to sample synth, play sample synth at half pitch, recording to track, lift from track, drop into drum sampler... there are other ways.

#7

Pretty sure that TE just bought the most economical encoders they could and they just happened to have a push button functionality.


Maybe some day they’ll decide to use them, but they haven’t in over three years.